I LEFT MY HEART IN TENNESSEE!

Until my older sister moved to Tennessee, I don’t think I thought overmuch about Tennessee; I had a few special Junior League cookbooks from Tennessee, certainly. “Dinner On the Diner” published by the Junior League of Tennessee in 1983 has always been a favorite—both the recipes and the art-deco design of the cookbook itself were quite appealing. Somewhere along the way I found some other old Tennessee community cookbooks to add to my collection.

Then in the 1990s, my older sister and her husband moved, lock stock and barrel, along with a younger brother and his wife and children to the Nashville region. My sister fell in love with Tennessee. When our brother and his family returned to Ohio a few years later, my sister and her husband bought five acres of land in Castalian Springs, about eleven miles from Lebanon, which in turn is about 40 miles (give or take a few) from Nashville. They bought a mobile home to put on the property.

We had a family reunion there one year, to celebrate my sister’s 60th birthday and it was at that time that some of us did a walking tour of downtown Nashville and I visited President Jackson’s home, the Hermitage, with my mother and her gentleman friend. When my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer, I began traveling to Tennessee more frequently. While running errands for my sister, I discovered the little towns of Hartsville and Lebanon and the historical trail that is present day Route 25 when driving to and from Hartsville. I fell in love with Tennessee, too.

Civil War historical sites can be found all around the region. The Battle of Hartsville was fought on December 7, 1862, in northern Tennessee at the opening of the Stones River Campaign the American Civil War. I always assumed that someday, when my sister was better, we’d visit some of the other Civil War sites. However, my sister passed away in October of 2004 and when I flew out of Nashville a week later, depressed and grieving, I thought I would never return to Tennessee again.

My sister gave me some of her cookbooks before she died but I had begun buying quite a few others—those and other southern cookbooks—whenever we found ourselves somewhere in the South, such as one niece’s wedding in the 1980s, at Stone Mountain near Atlanta.
The following are some of my Tennessee cookbooks:

OLD TIME TENNESSEE RECEIPTS, FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF NASHVILLE, UNDATED but ads place it in the early 1940s, spiral bound

BEST OF THE BEST FROM TENNESSEE, QUAIL RIDGE PRESS, 1987, spiral binding—made up of various other community cookbooks, a good way to discover what you don’t have. Lists of all contributing cookbooks is at the back of the cookbook, with illustrations

KINFOLKS AND CUSTARD PIE, RECOLLECTIONS AND RECIPES FROM AN EAST TENNESSEAN, WALTER LAMBERT, HARD COVER, UNIV OF TENN PRESS, 1988

3 responses to “I LEFT MY HEART IN TENNESSEE!”

Since my son lives in Knoxville maybe we should meet there someday and I can take you to Mc Kays bookstore that had hundreds of used Southern cookbooks. I thought of you when I was there in December. But then you would have to find room for them.

sounds like a plan! I would love tomeet you in Knoxville–think of the fun we could have! I have figured out where to put another big bookcase and am planning to relinquish a lot of fiction (will donate to the library for the next Friends’ sale) – to make space for more cookbooks. AND I can often get good flight rates on Southwest to Tennessee – well, Nashville for sure. Havent tried Knoxville yet. whoohoo! I could also arrange for us to meet the new(er) friend who is an editor at FRP. And what about Memphis? How far is that from Knoxville????
sounds like a great idea to me!